


Pay My Tab

by BananaCracker333 (bananacracker333)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, and a sad ending, fair warning, sans pays his tab, that's it basically, the infamous tab
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 06:39:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5818000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananacracker333/pseuds/BananaCracker333
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's finally over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pay My Tab

Today was a rare occasion-Sans was on a mission.

This is the longest they’d stayed on the surface by far. Despite the fact that a month has gone by, Sans still could hardly believe that it was finally over. No more resets, just fading memories of things that technically didn’t happen and a big load of nightmares and abandonment issues. Overall, not a bad trade. However, since the kid promised, he’d been hard at work, selling “Genuine Monster Dogs” which, as Frisk and a few others had figured out, happened to be a bunch of water sausages in buns. But hey, they sold. And they sold _well_.

Now, he had his own little place with Pap in New Ebott, a small monster town for those who weren’t quite ready to fully integrate with the humans, financially or otherwise. A few businesses, a fair amount of houses and apartments, a small school run the old Queen herself, and New Grillby's-Sans' current aim. He had a pocketful of cash and a journal, bound in some strange kind of metal, containing a long list of almost illegibly scrawled foodstuffs. Some of the pages were in worse shape than others, stained with red and browns, but others were pristine, albeit a bit crinkled.

It was getting late, the stars were just beginning to shine, but he knew Grillby wouldn’t mind. Sans planned it this way anyway. He had figured there would be less time for fuss if he came in right before closing. Also, less of a crowd. He felt vulnerable, but he had to get the weight off of his shoulders. Grillby had always been kind to him through the resets, when he was stuck in between paychecks for what equated to years. Tabs are a wonderful thing. Incredibly helpful to the unwilling time traveler.

Sans rested his hand on the door, still reeling from the revelation that it was truly over, before pushing it open and walking into the warm bar. Grillby sent him a wave, wordlessly implying his regular question. “I'll take the fries today, Grillbs.” He took his usual spot, smiling at the remaining regulars. The fire elemental walked into the back, coming back out after a moment with fries and a fresh bottle of ketchup. “You know me well, don’t you, hot head.”

“We all know your penchant for ketchup, Sans.” Grillby said, stoic as ever, though that may just be because of the lack of a distinctive mouth. However, if you look closely, his flames flared up just a little, turning yellowish at the edges. If you know him well enough, you know that means that the walking matchstick was amused. Sans picked at his fries, trying to pass the time until the restaurant cleared out, which honestly wasn’t all too long. About fifteen minutes into his fries, the last customer waved goodbye and left out into the night.

Sans let out a heavy sigh, plagued by memories as he pulled out the wad of cash. “Grillby, I’m paying off my tab.”

“Really. This isn’t just one of your jokes, now is it?” Grillby looked him up and down, looking for any traces of mirth. “Well. Seems you’re serious.”

“Breathe, Grillbz. Don’t get too excited.” Sans looked up at Grillby, years of experience telling him how surprised the fire elemental was as he awkwardly shuffled through a stack of papers. “No need for that, Grillby. I know how much it is.” He said, flattening out the bills. “All I ask is that you don’t ask why.” Sliding the stack across the bar to Grillby, he waited for the money to be accepted.

“Sans…” He counted out the bills, sounding confused “This is far too much. I can’t take this from you. This is enough for you and your brother to go move out into the human world, I can’t take that from you.”

“Believe me Grillby, this is exactly the amount that I owe you. I kept track.” He reached into the pocket of his hoodie, pulling out the notebook, opening it to a random page.

“Sans… what’s on that?”

“What? Oh, that’s just ketchup. Totally just ketchup.” The lights in his eye sockets disappeared for just a moment as he looked down on the page, images of a human not quite the same as the one he knew now flitted before him.

“Sans, I don’t know what I’m looking at, but I know I can’t take this much money from you.”

“Why can’t you? Open a branch in the human world, hire Burgerpants to run the Ebott branch-you know that man would give anything to get away from his current job. Put puns all over the menu in honor of my noble tab-paying skills if you feel guilty.” Sans looked up at his friend. “I know you don’t remember. But all I want to do is forget, and I can’t do that without doing this.”

“Sans, you’re not making any sense.” Grillby leaned onto the counter, attempting to catch Sans' eyes. “This is obviously upsetting you. Why don’t you explain it to me?”

“Because I have before. I told everyone, once. Just to make sure I was the only one. Undyne, Nacarat, you, Greater Dog, Lesser Dog, everyone.” Sans took a slow breath. “But nobody remembers. And it’s over now, at least that’s what the kid says.”

“Frisk?”

“Yeah, they’re saying that they won’t reset, that they have full control now. And we’re officially 21 days further in than the longest time, so I’m starting to believe it.”

“What do you mean by that? Sans—“

“Listen. I told you that it wouldn’t make much sense. But just trust me. I’ve been going through hell for what probably equates to years. You’ve fed me through all of it and I want this behind me.” Sans sighed, looking at Grillby, who still didn’t seem to be taking the money. “Look, Grillbz. If you don’t take the money I’m going to shove it in the tip jar and take a shortcut to Cambodia until you send me a postcard from the surface. What else can I do to convince you?”

“How about you tell me what you’ve been through. Because if I've been reading you correctly over the past few months, something happened to you and I know for a fact that you won’t talk to anyone.”

“So if I tell you everything, you’ll let me be? Take the money and move to the surface?”

“Well, I wouldn’t abandon my favorite customer, but yes, soon enough, I will.”

“Well, then, you’d better sit down somewhere comfortable. This is gonna take a while.”

And there they sat, for hours and hours. Grillby taking a seat on the barstool next to Sans, both of them eventually moving to a booth. Sans spilled his metaphorical guts and a few tears as well. After what felt like an hour, but was realistically more like five, they heard muffled ringing from inside his coat.

“I should get going, Grillbz.”

“Go to your brother, Sans.”

“Pap! Sorry, I had a talk with Grillby. Yes, I am aware of the time. Sort of. Okay, I’m on my way. Yes, I will read you fluffy bunny.” Sans stood up, bones creaking in protest. He hung up, waved goodbye to Grillby, and took a shortcut to his home feeling a hundred pounds lighter.

“Brother! It’s two o’clock in the morning, what took you so long!” his brother's shrill voice called out through the house.

“Sorry, bro. Got caught up at Grillby’s.” Sans fluidly carried himself up the stairs, grinning all the while. He entered his brother’s room, grabbing Papyrus’ favorite bedtime story as he went. The shorter skeleton sat down on the edge of the racecar bed and began.

The bedtime story ended shortly after it began, and Sans stood up, leaning over his brother to gently pat his head. “Goodnight sleepy bones. Sleep well.” He headed to his bedroom, curling up on his mattress with a true smile plastered on his face.

* * *

The next morning came too quickly for Sans’ liking. He looked out the window, assuming from the darkness that he had woken up in the middle of the night again. He got out of bed and meandered through the dark house, grabbing some ketchup from the kitchen before checking in on his brother. Or rather, his brother’s empty room. A steady chorus of “no, no, no, no. kid don’t do this to me” streamed from his mouth as he dropped the ketchup and careened through the house, now noticing all the minor differences between what he had become accustomed to and what he now known he had gone back to. He flung himself out of the door, landing himself in the cold snow. He just stayed there, unable to move, tears streaming down his face.

“Sans?” A gentle voice called out, like a whisper of smoke from the dying embers of a well-used campfire. When the elemental didn’t get a reaction out of the shorter monster, he moved closer, kneeling down next to the skeleton. “Sans, what is bothering you?”

“Goddammit Grillby, I finally paid my tab.”

“Sans, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Grillby looked as concerned as a being made purely out of fire could. “You haven’t paid off your tab in a while.”

“I’d moved on, Grillby. The nightmares had even stopped. Why, Grillby. Does the kid hate me? Did the anomaly take hold again? I thought it was over, Grillby. It was over, no more resets, no more time skips.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Sans. Do you need me to call Papyrus?” Grillby hesitated, putting a burning arm on the skeleton’s shoulders. “Do you need me to stay?”

“Nah, Grillbz. You’ve got a bar to run. I just need to accept that this is my lot in life and move on.”

“Sans, it’s closing time. I can stay.” Grillby took hold of Sans’ arm, gently leading him into the house.

Sans was silent, allowing Grillby to pull him out of the snow and into his house. He faintly registered the rustling in the kitchen amidst his clouded mind. He vaguely recognized a warm mug being pressed into his hands. He heard words, but couldn’t make sense of them. That is, not until he heard the door open and shut, followed shortly by Papyrus’ voice. “SANS! I heard you were having troubles!”

“Yeah, Pap, I guess you could say that.” Sans finally looked down into the mug, sipping at what he now knew to be hot cocoa. Well, lukewarm cocoa.

“You don’t have to talk to me. But you do have to talk to someone, alright? You know I hate seeing you like this.” Papyrus’ voice was softer than usual, gentler than his average yelling voice. “When Grillby called me saying he found you outside in the snow, just staring, I was so… worried. Concerned. And, well, sad.”

“No, Pap, don’t—“ Sans put down the mug in favor of reaching for his brother.

“Let me finish, brother. I was sad because I wasn’t there for you. You need to ask for help, Sans.”

“Listen, Pap. This isn’t just something you can fix.” Sans wrung his hands together, twisting them together nervously. “There isn’t anyone who could help me.”

“I could help you! Simply by allowing you to talk, it will help. Its not good to keep things to yourself, brother.”

“Done your research, bro?”

“Of course I have, The Great Papyrus must be knowledgeable in many subjects!” Papyrus enthusiastically proclaimed, before quieting. “Especially those which can help his brother."

**Author's Note:**

> My headcannon is that the reset always goes back to a different point, because I (totally not a scientist) don’t like the idea of a single point. It seems like something would get overloaded, I don’t know. Like I said, totally not a scientist. Also, it would allow for the different AU’s to exist canonically. So basically, AU’s happen when the reset goes back to an extremely early point in the timeline, Sans almost never suddenly changes in Pap’s POV, and everything makes sense story wise.


End file.
